sparsehackle
09-08-08, 10:15 PM
Near Creede Colorado – Late July, 2008
Every year I visit with a buddy of mine who has a cabin near Creede, Colorado in the south-central part of the state. We’ve fished together for over 20 years; everywhere from the Battenkill, to the San Juan, to the spring creeks of New Zealand.
Here’s the view from his back porch –
http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo251/fgordon48/VSBCabinView-2008b.jpg
In the back yard is a good sized creek that has an excellent population of 12-14 inch brown trout. Here’s a picture of me fishing the creek. When the fishing was on, I took fish on dry flies from just about every likely feeding and/or holding lie in the creek.
http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo251/fgordon48/FGinCreek-2008b.jpg
About 300 yards from the cabin is the upper Rio Grande River. It has the characteristics of a freestone stream, but the flow is controlled by the dam at Rio Grande reservoir. We had access to about 2 miles of private water.
http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo251/fgordon48/Rio-Grande-b.jpg
http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo251/fgordon48/FG-in-Rio-b.jpg
Trout in the Rio average about 14 inches, and 18-20 inch fish are not uncommon.
This year, the fishing was good, but not excellent, probably because the water level kept going up and down due to big thunderstorms and large increases and decreases in flow from the dam. Nevertheless, I caught all three major species of trout – rainbow, brown, and brook. Here’s some pictures of typical fish from the trip.
http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo251/fgordon48/RioBow2008b.jpg
http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo251/fgordon48/RioBrown2008b.jpg
http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo251/fgordon48/d9a1eb49.jpg
The highlight this year was a little vignette from the creek. What attracts me to fly fishing is the challenge. The most rewarding fish for me are those where I’ve solved a problem – either figuring out what they’re eating, making the correct presentation, or both.
One day on the creek nothing much was hatching so I sat down on the bank to just watch. Across the way, underneath of some overhanging willows were two female caddis flies hovering over the water and occasionally dipping down to lay their eggs. Dip, dip, dip – GULP. And then there was one. Dip, dip, - GULP. And then there were none.
OK! I tied on a #14 tan X-caddis which I thought would be pretty close to the natural. But here’s where things got dicey. I was in a narrow part of the creek, my back was against the bank, and the willows behind me prevented any sort of back cast. A standard roll cast would simply tangle the fly in the overhanging willows. Somehow I needed to get the fly underneath of the willows, back to within a foot of the bank, upstream of the feeding fish and with enough slack in the tippet to get a decent drift. This was going to be a challenge!
The only cast I could think of (and maybe actually pull off!) that had any chance of success was a sidearm roll cast, using the creek’s flow pulling my line downstream to load the rod. So I tried a couple; landing the fly about midstream so as not to spook the feeding trout. Remarkably, they turned out pretty good. OK, I told myself, you’ve got one shot at this fish or you’ll likely put him down. With that, I fired the cast up underneath of the willows and then checked it up just before the line settled to the water to put some slack in the tippet. Drift six inches, drift a foot, drift two feet more, WHAM – fish on! After a short but dogged fight I released the native 14-inch brown back into the creek.
Until next year -
Sparsehackle
Every year I visit with a buddy of mine who has a cabin near Creede, Colorado in the south-central part of the state. We’ve fished together for over 20 years; everywhere from the Battenkill, to the San Juan, to the spring creeks of New Zealand.
Here’s the view from his back porch –
http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo251/fgordon48/VSBCabinView-2008b.jpg
In the back yard is a good sized creek that has an excellent population of 12-14 inch brown trout. Here’s a picture of me fishing the creek. When the fishing was on, I took fish on dry flies from just about every likely feeding and/or holding lie in the creek.
http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo251/fgordon48/FGinCreek-2008b.jpg
About 300 yards from the cabin is the upper Rio Grande River. It has the characteristics of a freestone stream, but the flow is controlled by the dam at Rio Grande reservoir. We had access to about 2 miles of private water.
http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo251/fgordon48/Rio-Grande-b.jpg
http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo251/fgordon48/FG-in-Rio-b.jpg
Trout in the Rio average about 14 inches, and 18-20 inch fish are not uncommon.
This year, the fishing was good, but not excellent, probably because the water level kept going up and down due to big thunderstorms and large increases and decreases in flow from the dam. Nevertheless, I caught all three major species of trout – rainbow, brown, and brook. Here’s some pictures of typical fish from the trip.
http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo251/fgordon48/RioBow2008b.jpg
http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo251/fgordon48/RioBrown2008b.jpg
http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo251/fgordon48/d9a1eb49.jpg
The highlight this year was a little vignette from the creek. What attracts me to fly fishing is the challenge. The most rewarding fish for me are those where I’ve solved a problem – either figuring out what they’re eating, making the correct presentation, or both.
One day on the creek nothing much was hatching so I sat down on the bank to just watch. Across the way, underneath of some overhanging willows were two female caddis flies hovering over the water and occasionally dipping down to lay their eggs. Dip, dip, dip – GULP. And then there was one. Dip, dip, - GULP. And then there were none.
OK! I tied on a #14 tan X-caddis which I thought would be pretty close to the natural. But here’s where things got dicey. I was in a narrow part of the creek, my back was against the bank, and the willows behind me prevented any sort of back cast. A standard roll cast would simply tangle the fly in the overhanging willows. Somehow I needed to get the fly underneath of the willows, back to within a foot of the bank, upstream of the feeding fish and with enough slack in the tippet to get a decent drift. This was going to be a challenge!
The only cast I could think of (and maybe actually pull off!) that had any chance of success was a sidearm roll cast, using the creek’s flow pulling my line downstream to load the rod. So I tried a couple; landing the fly about midstream so as not to spook the feeding trout. Remarkably, they turned out pretty good. OK, I told myself, you’ve got one shot at this fish or you’ll likely put him down. With that, I fired the cast up underneath of the willows and then checked it up just before the line settled to the water to put some slack in the tippet. Drift six inches, drift a foot, drift two feet more, WHAM – fish on! After a short but dogged fight I released the native 14-inch brown back into the creek.
Until next year -
Sparsehackle